1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique for notifying a user of a network system information that a problem has occurred in the network system.
2. Description of Related Art
Notification of information regarding a problem occurring in a network system to a user of the network system has hitherto been carried out in the following manner.
A network management system for monitoring the status of network devices constituting the network system and a transmission path is provided on the network system. When a problem occurs in communication, a user who is involved in the communication inquires to a network administrator using a telephone or the like. In response to the inquiry from the user, the network administrator collects problem information by using the network management system to identify the cause of the problem, and then notifies the status to the user.
However, with this method, in a case of a large-scale network containing a large number of users, a work load imposed on the network administrator in supporting users when problems occur is increased, and it is difficult to properly support the inquiries from the users.
Therefore, in order to overcome the above problem, there has been proposed a customer network management technique (in af-nm-0019.0002 of ATM Forum) in which the information managed by the network management system is made public to the users of the network system on the network system, whereby the users have free access to the information about the network system.
Further, there has also been proposed a technique in which an HTTP server is disposed in an individual network device, and the status information monitored by the individual network device itself is made public to the users of the network system on the HTTP server, whereby the users can be given free access to the status information monitored by any network device by using a World Wide Web browser, and this technique is described on page 33 in the September issue of 1997 of SunWorld.
Further, as a technique related to a network system, an agent technique for carrying out processing by sharing the processing load among devices constituting a network system is also known. As an example of this type of agent technique, there is a technique which defines a communication control and an interface for implementing an execution environment of a mobile program on each device, so that the device on which the mobile program is executed is continually changed, under control of the mobile program itself, and this technique is described from page 21 to page 31 of IEEE Internet Computing No. 4, Vol. 1, (July, August issues of 1997).
According to the customer network management technique, desired information cannot be properly obtained unless each user is aware of the construction of the network system and the way in which an application is used in the network system. Further, since the network system is expanded as occasion demands due to increase in the number of users, it is unrealistic to expect all the of users to have sufficient grasp of the construction of the network system, etc. In addition, with this technique, it is necessary path for the network management system to continually monitor each network device and each transmission at all times.
Further, in the technique in which each network device makes the status information monitored by itself public to the users of the network system on the HTTP server, no user can identify a network device from which the information should be obtained unless the user grasps the construction of the network system and the way in which the application being is in the network system.
Accordingly, when a problem occurs in a communication being carried out by a user, the user cannot properly obtain the information on the problem with the above techniques.
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a network system in which when a problem occurs in a communication being carried out by a user, the information about the problem is properly notified (presented) to the user while reducing the load imposed on the network administrator.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a network system which can also reduce the load of each process in a network management system, which must be performed to supply the information about the problem concerned to the user.
In order to attain the above objects, the present invention provides a network system including a plurality of terminal devices and a plurality of network devices for relaying data between the terminal devices, wherein each of the network devices includes means for detecting a terminal device serving as a transmission side transmitting data output from an output port of the network device itself at which a problem occurs, and means for notifying problem information indicating occurrence of the problem to the terminal device serving as the transmission side thus detected.
According to the network system as described above, information indicating occurrence of a problem can be automatically and properly notified to all the terminal devices which are to carry out communication using the output port of the network device at which the problem occurs.